Poseidon

Poseidon, a remake of The Poseidon Adventure which was released in 1972 with an all star cast, has two things going for it; Kurt Russell and Wolfgang Petersen. Das Boot, which Wolfgang Petersen directed, was a knock-it-out-of-the-park homerun of a movie. If you haven't seen it yet, take the time to track it down. Das Boot is one great movie. He also directed Air Force One, Perfect Storm, In the Line of Fire, and Enemy Mine. You can see why someone might have chosen him to direct Poseidon based on his track record. Kurt Russell can also be fun to watch. The Thing comes to mind, the 1982 remake of The Thing from Another World (1951) where Russell totally pulls you into the movie, and a very scary movie at that. Kurt will always be close to my heart because he made a record of "Sugar, Sugar", that reminds me of Leonard Nimoy's record of "Proud Mary". I might be making it up but I think there is a tape of Kurt Russell singing "Sugar Sugar" on one of the Disney Shows from back in the 60s. He did not look all that comfortable.

I saw Poseidon in an IMAX theater. The film looked like it was framed the way it would have been in a regular theater, the whole IMAX screen was not utilized, but the sound system was much better than a regular theater. I was fairly close and the special effects held up quite well. This part of the film was very convincing. The film doesn't spend a lot of time setting stuff up, the boat turns upside, and off we go.

Just like the original there are multiple characters and different storylines going on. Everybody has their part to play, and they play it. But it feels very manipulative, especially one sequence near the end with a little boy. Why one sequence works and one doesn't is an interesting question. I never like horror movies where someone jumps out of the closet just to scare you. It is a way to get the audience jump but it does it by cheating. When the little boy is caught we really do not buy into it, it doesn't feel like part of the plot, it feels like it was stuck in there just so the audience would have to sweat over whether the boy was going to live or die. This whole movie has a by-the-numbers kind of feel to it. After you watch this, you do not get the impression that this was someone's life work. That someone really cared about it. You get the impression that someone just made a movie to get seats in the chair (and they did get mine in one). Maybe I am being a little naïve on this point. Movies, the best of them anyway, stay with you, play with your mind and run around your head. They make a deep impression. There is a DVD box set coming out called the John Wayne/John Ford Film Collection. Two of the eight movies included in the box set are The Searchers and The Long Voyage Home. I especially love The Long Voyage Home. It is such a beautiful movie, some of the best photography around (so does The Searchers for that matter).It sticks in your head, and it feels right. It is hard to imagine that movie being made any other way. Movies like that do not come around often. Poseidon is not one of these movies. Poseidon is a make a buck while you can kind of movie. Poseidon is paint-by-numbers movie. It is like eating cardboard. There is nothing there. Where is the love?

PS. You do get to see Freddy Rodriguez scream like a baby! Is that alone worth 8 bucks?? Could be. I thought it was the highpoint of the movie.

You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com